Gender: Male
Age: 23
Height: 5' (yes that's correct)
Weight: 118 lbs
Build: Endomorph
Wrist Size: Thin. About 5.5"
Diet: Whatever's in the fridge. I also take in two generic tablets after every breakfast - 1 tablet containing Calcium and Vitamin D, the other is a multi vitamin and minerals tablet. Our mom buys those vitamins for all of us.
Workout Location and Equipment: - I workout at home
- I have 2 dumbbell bars, 1 5 ft barbell, 1 ez-curl bar
- I have 4 plates each for 1.25 lbs, 2.5 lbs, 5 lbs, 10 lbs
- I have a "multi-use" bench. It can be flat, or inclined to 30 degrees or 45 degrees. It has the barbell holder overhead. It has the machine for leg curls and leg extensions. It has a lat pulldown machine where I can put the free weights. It also has a butterfly thing that I don't know how to use - at first I thought that they were for chest flies but when I tried them, it's just like doing bicep curls on the side while lying down.
Goals (not numbered in any way, just typing as I'm thinking): - Get stronger.
- Add muscle definition but not bulk up much. I just want to look nicer than my current pudgy appearance.
- Proper posture. My family and friends say that I slouch too much.
- Impress the opposite gender. - Be a role model to my friends and family to have a healthier lifestyle.
- ...I will type more when I think of more of my goals

My schedule throughout the day would most likely be:

6:00 a.m. - wake up
6:05 a.m. - boil water for a hot/warm bath. i don't know but when i take a bath with cold water, my stomach aches
6:06 a.m. to 6:19 a.m. - eat breakfast
6:20 a.m. to 6:35 a.m. - take a bath
6:36 a.m. to 6:50 a.m. - other bathroom activities like brushing teeth and toilet stuff
(sometimes i interchange the bathroom schedule)
6:51 a.m. - leave for work
7:50 a.m. - arrive at work. it takes a long time because traffic is hell. if there was no traffic, my commute time would be about only 35 minutes
...work throughout the day...
5:30 p.m. - leave the office
7:00 p.m. - arrive home. yes, it takes longer to travel home after work because other people go home from the office too and it's also the same time the children get out of their schools
7:01 p.m. to 7:05 p.m. - change to workout clothes
7:06 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. - exercise. < just an estimate
8:01 p.m. - i am so tired from work and the stress of commute and working out that i just order take out instead of standing and cooking. see, even standing makes me tired after my day sad
8:02 p.m. to 8:25 p.m. - rest and wait for the delivery to arrive
...well, if i don't eat take out, and i still have some energy left, i just cook some quick cooking foods, mostly fried like fried chicken, fried chicken nuggets, bacon and eggs (apparently, eating eggs at night does not affect my stomach), because i just want to go to bed at the earliest possible time
8:26 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. - eat dinner
9:01 p.m. to 9:05 p.m. - bathroom
9:06 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. - rest before going to bed
10:01 p.m. to 5:59 a.m. - sleep
(if i don't get my 8 hours of sleep, i feel really tired and sleepy the next day. so, see the complications?)

Ok. It's been like a week since my last post. I'm starting over with a new routine today.

The new routine will be like this:

* 1 minute rest between each exercise or set
* exercises with "to" follow each other after each set
* all exercises except the deadlift and abs exercises will follow 3x5-7
* deadlift will be 1x5
* reverse crunch and crunch will follow 3x12-15
* trunk twists will be 3x15-20
* I hope to progressively add a minimum of 5 lbs to each exercise every 2 weeks.

This is basically mahler's program with these changes:
- I asked Mike Mahler about the deadlift exercises and he said that I can include it so I have decided to change one stiff legged deadlift to the normal deadlift once every two weeks just to test how heavy I can lift.
- Because I have no place to hang and do pull ups, I have changed it to lat pulldowns since I have the equipment for it.
- Instead of the weighted sit-ups and hanging leg raises that he has stated, I'm doing the reverse crunch, crunch and trunk twists because I have no place to hang and do hanging leg raises and weighted sit ups would be hard for me since I'm just starting.

Not workout related but...It's been a couple of nights now that I have not been getting enough sleep. You guys interested in knowing why? Well, girls have been haunting my dreams. I wouldn't call this a nightmare in any other case but with the situation I am in right now, it is. I have a girlfriend and she's been living with me for 5 years now. I am loyal to her so every time I dream, something in my dream self thinks to himself that cheating would be wrong. After thinking that, I always wake up and every time I try to go to sleep, BOOM! Dream kicks in again. What am I going to do?! (<- rhetorical but you can post your comments if you like)

Last edited by uvhst3p on Sat Jun 28, 2008 10:39 am, edited 3 times in total.

Change of plans. I'll try to start working out tomorrow. Our place got hit by a strong storm and I forgot that my equipment was outside. I just checked on them right now and my plates and barbell are all rusted up. I just sprayed them just now with WD40 and I'm going to hopefully wipe all the rust out by this afternoon.

Ok...I couldn't wait to start my workout. I wiped off all rust possible. I also wiped off all WD40 residue on the barbell and plates to prevent slipping. I washed all rust from my hands and skin and did the workout.

My thoughts:
- I used my previous workout load and with the 3x5 routine and it's too light compared to my previous routine of multiple exercises with 3x10-15. I felt very little burn on my quads and no burn on all other muscles. Although the soreness in my lower back didn't go away. I always feel soreness in my lower back whenever I'm working out. Anyway, should I move up now or just wait until I complete the 3x7 routine by Friday next week?
- My Bench Press form sucks! Like I said, the weight was too light but I even tried bench pressing only the barbell and I had trouble balancing it. Sometimes it tilts to the left, other times it tilts to the right.
- My Squat form was okay but it still needs work.
- In terms of exercise form, starting from the next workout, I'll be doing them in a controlled slow motion so that I could work out on them. This is connected to my issue on whether or not to move up weight. I could just continue working on my form while sticking to the program or move up now but still continue to work on my form.
- I didn't do any ab work today since mike mahler said that it was optional.

with the rate the squat and rdl is going, they are going to progress much faster than the other exercises; but they may also be the first to stall

well, lower back soreness has gone down a bit. it still starts when i do the stiff legged deadlift. also, changing the weights between exercises and sets, moving the weights from the barbell rack to the lat pulldown machine, and moving the barbell from the rack to the floor, didn't help my lower back at all

regarding the stiff legged deadlift, i think the reason why it's causing back pain is because of my wrong posture. i saw a video in muscle and fitness about doing the rdl and it said to keep your legs and back straight or stiff throughout the exercise. well, i just analyzed myself doing the rdl in front of the mirror without any equipment and it seems like i am not keeping my back straight. the reason for me not keeping my back straight is because in the muscle and fitness video, it said that the lowest point of the rdl should be right about in the middle of the shins. see, if i keep my back straight, the barbell would reach only just above the knee so in order for it to reach my shins, my back bends. any advice on this? should i just not do stiff legged deadlifts and just do the normal deadlifts instead?

regarding the squats, i place the barbell somewhere around my upper traps. i've seen some rx squat videos and read about coach rippetoe's squats and they point out that the barbell should be placed lower than that, somewhere across the shoulders where the hands are in line with the shoulders. i tried doing that but i am just not comfortable with the position of the barbell and i can't put my arms behind in the position that was shown. i do the squat like this guy (http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ni0bc_gaGrA&feature=related) only my hands are about midpoint and i go almost full butt to ground

- still struggling with the crunches
- stepped up weight for the bent over barbell row because i felt it was too light
- i can feel the weight for the 3x7 squats. i'm stepping up the weight next week because i finished the 3x7 for the squats. hopefully i can still do them properly
- i tried coach rippetoe's barbell position for the squat and i just feel really uneasy and uncomfortable with the positioning. i'm just going to put the barbell where it's most comfortable
- no lower back soreness today because i skipped on the rdl this time since the normal deadlift was included

- dang crunches!
- i felt the additional 5 lbs for the barbell squat
- no lower back soreness today. thanks stu for the rdl form. i just moved up only 2.5 lbs instead of the 5 lbs for the rdl because with the proper form, i just felt that it was a bit heavy
- i don't know if i use the same muscles for the left and right side of my body for the lat pulldown

i have read about some of mike mahler's training for mma. i want to incorporate the one arm dumbbell swing, one arm dumbbell snatch, and two dumbbell clean and jerk into my program when i reach the un-trained level. no kettlebell training here because i have no kettlebells. although i will be practicing those exercises, i still won't know any technique in mma fighting because there is no popular local mma fight scene here. i think the URCC (a local mma organization similar to PRIDE) eventually died down here. even ufc tv don't get high ratings

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